At the start of the week, we got the fantastic news that Seth Rogen had confirmed that James Franco and Jonah Hill, both long-time collaborators of Rogen’s, would be joining the cast of the long-awaited short-turned-feature-film, Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse.
Now, in an interview with MTV, he’s confirmed that, along with himself, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, and Jonah Hill, two more of Rogen’s great collaborators will also be joining the cast in the form of Danny McBride and Craig Robinson.
Rogen seems to be taking a leaf out of Judd Apatow’s book by surrounding himself with his friends pretty much whenever he makes a movie, and it’s been working great for him so far. His career’s been a brilliant success for some time now, and this new film sounds like it’s going to be another awesome one from him.
Co-written by Rogen and yet another long-time friend and collaborator, Evan Goldberg (Pineapple Express, The Green Hornet), Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse will see Rogen making his directorial debut, and you just know that it’s going to be immense.
At some point or another, the entire team to date has worked with pretty much everyone else on the team, and so their rapport on and off the screen is already a given, which is perfect for making a film together.
Rogen, Baruchel, Hill, and Robinson were all in Knocked Up together. Baruchel, Rogen, McBride, and Robinson all starred in Fanboys. Rogen and Franco go way back to TV’s Freaks and Geeks, and of course led the brilliant Pineapple Express together, which also starred McBride and Robinson, to name just four great examples.
Rogen has said in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press,
“It’s a movie about a bunch of friends who are stuck in a house together as the apocalypse happens outside and they kind of barricade themselves in… They think they’ve kind of survived the worst and then they realize they all really can’t stand to be around each other as they’re stuck in this house together.
“It’s all our friends, luckily, and we all play ourselves in the movie. … I literally play Seth Rogen in the movie and Jay Baruchel literally plays himself in the movie and others — Jonah Hill, James Franco — they’re literally playing themselves in the movie.
“It’s a very strange movie, but it’s gonna happen.”
Whether we can look forward to seeing McBride and Robinson playing themselves isn’t yet confirmed, but given that Franco and Hill are, it wouldn’t be that surprising if they’re also stuck in the house with them.
There had been talk of Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe also starring in the film, but according to the recent interview with MTV, that’s no longer the case.
““It doesn’t look like he’s willing to push things as far as we [are],” Rogen said with that catchy laugh of his.”
In my opinion, that’s probably a good thing. Other than seeing him as one of the dead celebrity cameos that Rogen and Baruchel want for the film, I can’t really imagine what Radcliffe would have added to the film; it doesn’t seem like quite the right fit.
Back in 2007, Rogen and Baruchel (the ‘Jay and Seth’ part of the film’s title, of course) starred in a short/teaser trailer for this upcoming film (which I’ve embedded below for your viewing pleasure), and even at a minute and a half long, it looked ridiculously awesome. So when you add Franco, Hill, McBride, and Robinson into the mix, you really cannot go wrong. With filming set to begin in February next year, hopefully we won’t have to be waiting that much longer for this to come out. It’s going to be brilliant.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehNFPShWTsg’]
